Dean shakes up the Democrats

July 08, 2003

While the rest of the world hummed along the last few months happily unconcerned about next year's presidential election, the crop of Democratic challengers to President Bush quietly ballooned to nine candidates, none of them an obvious frontrunner.

But the release of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's surprising fundraising figures last week signaled the mustering of something the Democrats haven't seen in a while--a grassroots phenomenon. That Dean is running and thriving as an outsider suggests a well of discontent among Democratic activists about the blandishments offered by Dean's better-known rivals. Whether or not that insurgency lasts beyond summer, it says something healthy about our unpredictable democracy.

To all of this, some well-informed people will still reply, "Howard who?"

That's not a question heavyweights like Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) are asking anymore. With more than $7.5 million collected in the last three months, Dean's new fundraising figures dwarf those of Lieberman and other marquee Democrats. More than $3 million of that came in one recent week, largely from an army of supporters reached through the Internet. The average Dean contribution was a bit more than $100, indicating his strength comes largely from the ranks of ordinary Democrats.

What is Dean's appeal? He still registers just in the single digits in polls of likely Democratic voters. His overall popularity trails rivals such as Lieberman, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) Dean made so many verbal gaffes--he wrongly charged that pro-war Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) had been ambivalent about invading Iraq--that he issued a pre-emptive apology to anyone else he might offend.

Yet unlike the more polished candidates, Dean has electrified many of the Democratic faithful with his harsh criticisms of Bush. One of his party's most vocal critics of the Iraq war, Dean criticized his ideological brethren in Washington for surrendering to Bush on tax cuts, education spending and health care. His early appeal recalls that of conservative pioneer Barry Goldwater, who ran against President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 under the rallying cry, "A Choice, Not an Echo."

If liberals look closely, they may find Dean's not so predictable--he governed as a fiscal conservative who held the line on taxes, supported welfare reform and earned an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.

But he still lands firmly on the left in his party. If he has staying power, he will set up an interesting question for the Democratic Party. Will it continue to follow the "New Democrat" path set by Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Lieberman and others, or will it return to a more traditional liberalism?

Like Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 2000, Dean has been able to mobilize liberal voters who otherwise might have shunned the electoral process. His swift success in corralling an astounding 59,000 donors, mostly through creative use of the Internet and good-old word of mouth, should be a lesson to organizers of every political stripe.

As Dean said at his official campaign kick-off last week, "We in politics are not giving people a reason to vote or a reason to participate."

He's right about that, at least.

Political crusades have a habit of flaming out, and Dean could be old news before the Iowa caucuses. But for now, he's the most interesting Democrat to watch in a crowd of candidates who seem cautious to a fault.